The Christian Year eBook

Guided by her, along the mountain road,
Far through the twilight of the
morn,
With hurried footsteps from the accursed abode
He sees the holy household borne;
Angels, or more, on either hand are nigh,
To speed them o’er the tempting
plain,
Lingering in heart, and with frail sidelong eye
Seeking how near they may unharmed remain.

“Ah! wherefore gleam those upland slopes so
fair?
And why, through every woodland
arch,
Swells yon bright vale, as Eden rich and rare,
Where Jordan winds his stately march;
If all must be forsaken, ruined all,
If God have planted but to burn?
—
Surely not yet the avenging shower will fall,
Though to my home for one last look I turn.”

Thus while they waver, surely long ago
They had provoked the withering
blast,
But that the merciful Avengers know
Their frailty well, and hold them
fast.
“Haste, for thy life escape, nor look behind”
—
Ever in thrilling sounds like these
They check the wandering eye, severely kind,
Nor let the sinner lose his soul at ease.

And when, o’erwearied with the steep ascent,
We for a nearer refuge crave,
One little spot of ground in mercy lent,
One hour of home before the grave,
Oft in His pity o’er His children weak,
His hand withdraws the penal fire,
And where we fondly cling, forbears to wreak
Full vengeance, till our hearts are weaned entire.

Thus, by the merits of one righteous man,
The Church, our Zoar, shall abide,
Till she abuse, so sore, her lengthened span,
E’en Mercy’s self her
face must hide.
Then, onward yet a step, thou hard-won soul;
Though in the Church thou know thy
place,
The mountain farther lies—­there seek thy
goal,
There breathe at large, o’erpast thy dangerous
race.

Sweet is the smile of home; the mutual look
When hearts are of each other sure;
Sweet all the joys that crowd the household nook,
The haunt of all affections pure;
Yet in the world e’en these abide, and we
Above the world our calling boast;
Once gain the mountain-top, and thou art free:
Till then, who rest, presume; who turn to look, are
lost.

SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT

And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried
with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto
his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.
Genesis xxvii. 34. (Compare Hebrew xii. 17.
He found no place of repentance, though he sought it
carefully with tears.)

“And is there in God’s world so drear
a place
Where the loud bitter cry is raised
in vain?
Where tears of penance come too late for grace,
As on the uprooted flower the genial
rain?”

’Tis even so: the sovereign Lord of souls
Stores in the dungeon of His boundless
realm
Each bolt that o’er the sinner vainly rolls,
With gathered wrath the reprobate
to whelm.